Signature of outflows in strong MgII absorbers in quasar sightlines

Abstract

We report a correlation between velocity offset (beta = v/c) of strong Mg II absorption systems and the bolometric luminosity (L_bol) of quasars in SDSS-DR7. We find that, beta shows a power law increase with L_bol, with a slope (~ 1/4). We find that such a relation of beta with L_bol is expected for outflows driven by scattering of black hole radiation by dust grains, and which are launched from the innermost dust survival radius. Our results indicate that a significant fraction of the strong MgII absorbers, in the range of beta = (0--0.4) may be associated with the quasars themselves.

5 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS letters, Comments Welcome

References in corpus (6)

• A Catalog of Quasar Properties from SDSS DR7
• Lensing, reddening and extinction effects of MgII absorbers from z=0.4 to z=2
• Supernovae and AGN driven galactic outflows
• Intervening Metal Systems in GRB and QSO sight-lines: The Mgii and Civ Question
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Cited by in corpus (4)

• The extent of the MgII absorbing circum-galactic medium of quasars
• A compact, metal-rich, kpc-scale outflow in FBQS J0209-0438: Detailed diagnostics from HST/COS extreme UV observations
• Incidence of Strong MgII Absorbers Towards Different Types of Quasars
• The circum-galactic medium of quasars: transverse and line-of-sight absorptions